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Contrary to popular belief, your ip address is not normally the cause of slow browsing, receiving lots of spam, or many other connectivity problems. Reasons for changing an ip address include: being banned from a forum/ irc channel etc, or someone attacking an individual address (usually after peeing off a script kiddy in IRC).

How to Change the address

The ip address assigned to your PC is linked to the mac address of the device that is connected. A USB connection will always have a mac address one digit higher than the mac address of the cable modem, whereas an ethernet connection uses a NIC which has it's own mac address. An ip addreess can be forced to change by changing the mac address of a device in one of the following ways:

switch from usb to ethernet or vice versa

change network cards

change the mac address of the NIC

Changing a NIC's mac address

Windows
Go into device manager and then the properties of the network card. In the "advanced" section there is an option to change the network address/ physical address/ mac address. Check the current mac address using ipconfig /all from a command prompt and then increase the mac address by one digit. Reboot everything and you should have a new ip.

Apple MacNB- this procedure will only work on a mac with terminal- ie os 10.1 or higher

Open a terminal window and type:

sudo ifconfig en0 ether 00:00:00:00:00:00

where en0 is the interface you are using, and the zeros are the mac address that you want to use.

Leaving the connection off for a period of time does not guarantee the same ip address, because even if the lease has expired, if the ip address has not been assigned to someone else you will get the same ip back again. Also reinstalling the ntl software will not give a different ip unless you use a different device to connect.

5. Connect the power supply back into your cable modem, and then press Enter/OK on the above command (which was 'ipconfig /renew'), continuously repeat the same command using the UP button on your keypad (saves you manually typing it in).

6. It should hopefully provide you with a new IP. This has always worked for me.

The reason you enter 'ipconfig /renew' at step 4 is so that you don't waste time at step 5 -- If you waste time, there's every possibility that it won't work.

1] If you ARE using a router, you can change your ip address by going into your router's control panel, changing your mac address (keep things simple by increasing the last number by 1), and then disconnecting/reconnecting.

5. Connect the power supply back into your cable modem, and then press Enter/OK on the above command (which was 'ipconfig /renew'), continuously repeat the same command using the UP button on your keypad (saves you manually typing it in).

6. It should hopefully provide you with a new IP. This has always worked for me.

The reason you enter 'ipconfig /renew' at step 4 is so that you don't waste time at step 5 -- If you waste time, there's every possibility that it won't work.

Hope that helps!

Updated -- 31.07.08

This tutorial is designed for those using a cable modem.

1. Connect directly to the cable modem, you must not connect through a router -- you can connect through a switch, but it's not recommended (reason behind this is that ntl:telewestbusiness customers can have more than one CPE assigned to their modem, and if you have multiple computers or whatever connected to the switch -- it won't work.)

2. So you've connected directly to the modem -- i don't care how, just make sure there is no router involved.

3. Command Prompt ... Run 'ipconfig /release' and remove the power supply from your cable modem -- leave it unplugged for about 2 minutes.

4. This is the tricky bit and where you have to act fast. Whilst you're plugging the power supply back into the cable modem, you need to run 'ipconfig /release' (the opposite to /renew) ... KEEP doing it and KEEP doing it -- even if it says that the IP address is something like 192.168.100.1 -- NO, this is not your router assigning IP's, you haven't connected through it remember? ... this is just the IP local to the cable modem itself.

5. The above (4) doesn't too long, just be patient for a few whilst it connects.

You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.

8. Right click on "Local Area Connection" and click "properties"
9. Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab
10. Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab
11. Create an IP address (It doesn't matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up).
12. Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers.
13. Hit the "Ok" button here
14. Hit the "Ok" button again

You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.

15. Right-click back on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings
17. This time, select "Obtain an IP address automatically"
tongue.gif 18. Hit "Ok"
19. Hit "Ok" again
20. You now have a new IP address

IP addresses are typically allocated by network servers for a period of time. That can be hours or days. This is often referred to as a lease. Typically servers record details of the device which it communicates with using a mac code. This is an identifier built into the network ports of most network type devices including routers, computer network cards, modems and such like.

If the device remains connected to the network, the lease will be renewed with the same IP. Even if a device is disconnected from a network, if you reconnect before the lease has expired, it will pick up the same IP.